Raffaele Sollecito, flanked by his stepmother Mara Papagni, left, and his aunt Sara Achille, right, leave the final hearing before the third court verdict for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, in Florence, Italy. Photograph: Antonio Calanni/AP

Pairs of paper dolls are placed inside bamboo containers for Hinamatsuri or Girls' Day in the Matsui Kogeisha doll workshop in Kamigori, Japan. Hinamatsuri is celebrated on March 3 when young girls display intricately decorated traditional Japanese dolls in their homes. Photograph: Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy shakes hands as he arrives in Chatelaillon, western France, to award the French Legion of Honour to right-wing opposition UMP party mayor Jean-Louis Leonard. Photograph: Xavier Leoty/AFP/Getty Images

Hindu devotees wait to fill pots with water from the Bagmati River at the Pashupatinath Temple during the month-long Swasthani festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. Photograph: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images

Meanwhile also in India, Congress party workers and president of Amritsar District Congress Committee pay homage to the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi on the 66th anniversary of his death. Photograph: Reporter#41763/Demotix/Corbis

Taha Zaid Khatir, aged 12, walks with an artificial limb at a prosthetic centre in Sanaa, Yemen. He lost a leg in crossfire during fighting between Shi'ite Houthi rebels and the national army in Yemen's northwestern province. Photograph: Khaled Abdullah/Reuters